Law&Company "Korean Bar Association condemns Lotteok lawyer disciplinary actions... Will support objections"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Ro&Company, the operator of the legal service platform 'Lotok,' condemned the disciplinary actions taken by the Korean Bar Association against lawyers. They also expressed their intention to support appeals to the disciplinary committee.

According to industry sources on the 18th, the Korean Bar Association imposed disciplinary actions of up to 3 million KRW on nine lawyers registered with Lotok. As of July, about 2,000 lawyers were registered with Lotok, raising expectations that more disciplinary actions may follow.

Ro&Company issued a statement saying, "We strongly condemn the Korean Bar Association for disciplining lawyers simply because they used Lotok," and added, "This action ignores the repeatedly confirmed conclusion that 'Lotok is legal.'"

Previously, the Constitutional Court ruled the Korean Bar Association's advertising regulations unconstitutional, and the prosecution decided not to indict Ro&Company three times.

Ro&Company stated, "The Korean Bar Association's executive board's urging to withdraw from the platform has been confirmed as an illegal act violating the Fair Trade Act through the Fair Trade Commission's review report," and added, "The full commission meeting of the Fair Trade Commission is about to finalize the level of sanctions."

They continued, "Disciplinary actions against lawyers using Lotok only aggravate the illegality and inevitably lead to heavier sanctions from the Fair Trade Commission."

Finally, they said, "We will respond to the end by all possible means to protect our member lawyers," and "We will support appeals to the 'Ministry of Justice Lawyer Disciplinary Committee' for lawyers who have been disciplined."

Correction Notice

In our article titled <Ro&Company Condemns Korean Bar Association’s Disciplinary Actions Against Lotok Lawyers... Will Support Appeals> dated October 18, 2022, we reported that "The Constitutional Court ruled the Korean Bar Association's advertising regulations unconstitutional."

Regarding this, the Korean Bar Association informed us that "The Constitutional Court did not rule all of the Korean Bar Association's regulations on lawyer advertising unconstitutional, but only parts of Article 4, Clause 14 concerning 'advertisements contrary to the association's authoritative interpretation,' parts of Article 8, Paragraph 2, Clause 4 concerning 'acts performed as a purpose or means in violation of the association's authoritative interpretation,' and parts of Article 5, Paragraph 2, Clause 1 concerning 'acts of advertising, promoting, or introducing lawyers,' were judged unconstitutional."

The above report was based on court rulings.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.